Hasbro Reveals Star Wars App Details

As revealed in an exclusive today by Mashable, Hasbro revealed details surrounding a new app they are launching called the Star Wars Studio FX app. Why is this app so awesome? Because, instead of learning how to create 3D images and graphics or banging your head against a wall to master the green screen, you can use this app to easily create special effects for your Star Wars inspired short films.

The app is compatible with with several new Hasbro Rogue One: A Star Wars Story toys available this fall. The compatibility with these toys makes it easier to tell your own Star Wars story. You don’t necessarily need to own these compatible toys in order to utilize the free app, but owning these toys does have its perks! The Star Wars Studio FX app will help enhance your story, offering more than 30 special effects for you to use throughout the course of your film.

Supposedly Hasbro is going to try to have 50 special effects when the app is officially launched. This is where owning the toys comes into play. There are no in-app purchases if you want a certain special effect. However, one way you can earn more access to different special effects is by scanning the QR code of one of the compatible Star Wars toys. Does this mean you’ll get a different effect every time you scan a different QR code. Unfortunately, no. There are duplicate QR codes, so the effects you will acquire will sometimes overlap.

How simple is this app? Could someone as technologically inept as me use it? According to Raymond Wong, it is simple enough for anyone to use, so long as they follow the minimum requirements:

Adding effects is simple that even a child can figure it out. Once you’ve got your effect selected (it’ll show you a little preview before you make your own), it’s just a matter of framing your shot, lining up the target reticle where you want an effect to appear and then hitting the record button.

Videos have to be at least five seconds long and the app does let you adjust the timing of effects within a clip. This part is mostly intuitive, although you will have to do some trial and error before you get the effect timed just right; it always took me a couple of tries.

And while the effects are easy to apply, you really have to play with perspective in order to get them to look good.

via Mashable

The app will be available on ioS and on the Android. It is currently scheduled to be released for September 2016, but the official date has not been announced yet. We will keep you updated as soon as we get some more information.